POLITICANS WHO LET SOVIET WORKERS BUILD OUR EMBASSY IN SAME BOAT AS MARINES

The Korean War was at its bloodiest. The U.S. Marine Corps, in desperate need of manpower, was accepting a few draftees.

I was, depending on the viewpoint, one of the privileged or unfortunate few. I've told parts of the story before and bring it up again only because the Marines are much in the news of late.

For 37 days and 37 nights I fought the battle of Parris Island. After the first two weeks I was eligible to indulge in a Marine tradition -- looking at each day's motley crew of incoming recruits and reminiscing about how much tougher it was in the Old Corps. Way back around the first of the month.

Then an observant drill instructor noticed something the draft board had missed. My glasses. He ordered me, along with all other four-eyed boots, to take an eye exam.

"If you hold those things up to the sun just right," the optometric officer said, "you can set your face on fire. That would be funny, but the smoke could give away your position and get a whole platoon killed."

My military career was over and all I had to show for it was a skinhead, mileage money back to Miami, an honorable discharge that entitled me to wear my uniform at Fourth of July parades, and the right to talk about how much softer today's jarheads are than those who served in the Old Corps.

Having never gotten beyond the tattered burlap bags on a weedy bayonet course, I haven't used the last two fringe benefits and won't start now.

The scandal in Moscow, where Marine guards have been accused of consorting with Russian vamps and allowing Soviet spies into the American Embassy, has made the Corps a target for derision.

"The Marines need a few good men," critics hoot, "to keep an eye on those panting traitors letting Kremlin spooks paw through super-sensitive U.S. documents in the middle of the night."

If the accused have helped compromise U.S. interests they should be court- martialed and sentenced to maximum prison terms. It's unfortunate that similar punishment can't be meted out to the bureaucratic boobs responsible for keeping track of security procedures at American diplomatic facilities around the world.

Of particular concern is the new embassy being built in Moscow. That building, which may have to be demolished, is laced with Soviet electronic spy equipment. At least two years ago President Reagan and his advisers were warned that security at the old embassy was a joke and that listening devices were being built into every wall of the new structure.

They were warned that there was a possibility that typewriters shipped into the U.S.S.R. were being intercepted and rigged so that every word written inside the embassy was instantly transmitted to Russian snoopers.

They were warned that employing Soviet citizens inside the embassy was a major mistake, an invitation to easy espionage.

All of those warnings were ignored.

Unlike the Soviets, who brought in their own crews to build their new embassy in Washington, the administration allowed Russian workers to take part in construction of U.S. headquarters in Moscow. Sen. Patrick J. Leahy, D-Vermont, was not just joshing when he said "Our general contractor is the KGB . . ."

Why would an administration so loud in demanding hundreds of billions of dollars for grandiose defense schemes set itself up for security disasters by cutting corners on construction and staffing? Ignorance? Complacency? Carelessness? All of the above?

The Moscow debacle is just one more example of the high cost of hands-off management when vital assignments and judgments are left in the hands of complacent incompetents.

When asked why nothing had been done to block Soviet efforts to bug the U.S. embassy in Moscow, the president said he thought something had been done.

Reagan, noted hands-off manager, got lost on another important issue.

Old Corps, new Corps, the Marines are taking the heat. Some high-ranking political company should be brought into the kitchen to share that heat with them.